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I just saw this and had to look at it not twice but three times to make sure my eyes did not deceive me! How was this kept a secret?! A 30,000 sq ft aquarium should be open by Q2 of next year (2014) at a cost of $10M near Concord Mills (as if that area needs anything else added).

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I just saw this and had to look at it not twice but three times to make sure my eyes did not deceive me! How was this kept a secret?! A 30,000 sq ft aquarium should be open by Q2 of next year (2014) at a cost of $10M near Concord Mills (as if that area needs anything else added).

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Concord Mills/Bruton Smith is becoming a heavy hitter as far as its continued march as becoming a destination city.

As I said on the Wishlist thread. I'm fine with the aquarium being located in the area as Long as the BLvd. in general gets better transportation. Maybe a bus hub at the end of the BLE can better serve the area

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Welcome news but I don't think this will be anything all that grand. 30,000 sqft seems very small for an aquarium, if Concord Mills itself is about 1.4 million sqft, and the new dolphin expansion of the Georgia Aquarium by itself is 84,000 sqft.

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With a sizable, excellent aquarium in Knoxville and the Georgia Aquarium a few hours away, this will be a nice addition to our metro area. I agree that the size is smallish, but if it's done well, it will be a fine place to take visitors. The aquarium at Pine Knolls Shore is a great little place.

A $10 million 23,000 square foot aquarium is currently under construction in Greensboro (http://www.natsci.org/attractions/sciquarium/index.shtml) so it looks like this aquarium being planned at Concord Mills is on the same level. Y'all are getting a slightly better better deal. $10 million for 7,000 more square feet than the one going up in Greensboro. But it would be nice to see one on par with Atlanta's aquarium in uptown Charlotte. Such an attraction would draw people from all over the Carolinas.

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For reference, the South Carolina Aquarium in Charleston - which is moderate in size by most measures - is 93,000 sq ft.

Welcome news but I don't think this will be anything all that grand. 30,000 sqft seems very small for an aquarium, if Concord Mills itself is about 1.4 million sqft, and the new dolphin expansion of the Georgia Aquarium by itself is 84,000 sqft.

I'm sure Concord's will be set up in an oval pattern so they can instigate dolphin races.

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Anyone have any thoughts on where an aquarium would go? My initial thought was the backside of the mall, similar to how the speedpark extends from the mall itself.

My best guess would be expanding out from the permanently dead space adjacent to the movie theater across from Sun & Ski sports. That's a pre-built 10k square foot space to expand onto. It looks to be the only area around the mall that wouldn't interfere with parking (that huge swath of parking is only ever utilized by amc employees and christmas shoppers anyway,) shipment receiving, or other anchors' external entrances. A second floor would not be feasible by any measure.

Or, hey, would it be a novel idea to, you know, not attach it to the mall?

Even though this isn't a Georgia Aquarium Jr., I'm still thrilled the area is finally getting an aquarium at all. If properly laid out, even 30k sq ft is a lot of space for exhibits. If anyone here has been to Fintastic at Arysley off of 485 and South Tryon, you can see just how many gallons you can fit in 10k sq ft of space; over half of which is open sales space for empty aquariums and supplies. Just as Great Wolf Lodge is a micro-water park, I think a micro-aquarium (by Atlanta's standards) will do just fine and provide a great attraction to the metro.

Edit: upon looking at Google Maps, anybody notice the giant amount of acreage between the mall and 485? Can anybody say Zoo?

Edited February 3, 2013 by AuLukey

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My best guess would be expanding out from the permanently dead space adjacent to the movie theater across from Sun & Ski sports. That's a pre-built 10k square foot space to expand onto. It looks to be the only area around the mall that wouldn't interfere with parking (that huge swath of parking is only ever utilized by amc employees and christmas shoppers anyway,) shipment receiving, or other anchors' external entrances. A second floor would not be feasible by any measure.

Or, hey, would it be a novel idea to, you know, not attach it to the mall?

Even though this isn't a Georgia Aquarium Jr., I'm still thrilled the area is finally getting an aquarium at all. If properly laid out, even 30k sq ft is a lot of space for exhibits. If anyone here has been to Fintastic at Arysley off of 485 and South Tryon, you can see just how many gallons you can fit in 10k sq ft of space; over half of which is open sales space for empty aquariums and supplies. Just as Great Wolf Lodge is a micro-water park, I think a micro-aquarium (by Atlanta's standards) will do just fine and provide a great attraction to the metro.

Edit: upon looking at Google Maps, anybody notice the giant amount of acreage between the mall and 485? Can anybody say Zoo?

The new aquarium at Concord Mills will replace the NASCAR Speedpark...or so I've been told.

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That's not a bad idea. I personally hate to see the speedpark go, yet I've never been. I guess I just like the idea that it's available.

You really aren't missing much. It could be great, but it's not. They run super slow "fun" carts on tracks that are way to big for them, and there is very little equalization between the carts. I'm probably spoiled as I used to work at North Tryon Speedway which was very small track running the same type of "fun" carts, but they were very equalized, and the laps were timed. That was the best fun carting experience I've ever had and was better than even victory lane, though it could be very fustrating if you were caught in the middle of a pack.

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It's sooooo much smaller than I had anticipated. I could have sworn that they had originally stated they were going to expand the space outward. This is definitely not the case. The interior of the old speedpark was not very big to begin with. I have a feeling we are going to be quite a bit underwhelmed by the finished product here.